this beakers failure to win republican support in the house for his plan the proposal on the fiscal cliff has embarrassed the speaker, but the speaker's failure means a solution to the fiscal cliff is, if they're going to be one, now resting squarely upon president obama. arsine to be vacationing president alone cannot propose legislation that wins majority support in both the house and senate, and the decision to go over the fiscal cliff now depends on his ability to successfulully negotiate and to forge a compromise that appeals to both republicans and the far left in mr. obama's party. the president met with senate majority leader harry reid this afternoon and talked with speaker boehner to begin anew that eort to reach compromise. >> averting this middle-class tax hike is not a democratic responsibility or republican responsibility. with their foes the american people have determined that governing is a shared responsibility between both parties in this congress laws can only pass with support from democrats and republicans, and that means nobody gets 100 percent of what they want. lo